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Government aid needed to eradicate polio from the country - Volume 2 Issue 1: Disability News and Information Service for India

Government aid needed to eradicate polio from the country

DNIS News Network -- A panel working on eradicating polio from the country
has approached the government to seek help in its mission.

A committee comprising the Director General of the Indian Council for Medical
Reasearch, Dr N.K. Ganguly, representative of the Centre for Disease Control,
Atlanta, Dr Steve Kochi, WHO In-charge of the Global Polio Eradication programme,
Dr Bruce Aylward and others, submitted a report to the Health Ministry recommending
that President A.P.J. Kalam and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee be requested
to make public appeals through media to get national support for polio eradication.

The urgency lies in the fact that while high-risk areas like Uttar Pradesh
and Bihar were found to be "promising", Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh
have been listed as the new risk zones. This outbreak in the southern states
demonstrates significant threat to areas that have previously been polio-free.
The committee has called the next six months "the most critical period
for polio eradication and also a period when strong government leadership at
all levels is most crucial."
The key recommendations of the committee are:

The government should implement the national policy of giving polio vaccine
together with BCG at the time of birth.

The Prime Minister should hold a meeting with chief ministers of different
states. Briefings for chief ministers should be held every two weeks.

Additional doses of polio vaccine to children where a case is detected.